Life. The Game.

Feb. 13, 2012 - June 1, 2015

Life. started as a 3 years long university project with a team of 10 students and later became its own independant startup project.
An entire year was spent building the concept itself, the design and the full technical architecture. The development only started on the 2nd year, and marketing started on the 3rd year. This schedule was recommended by the University, but after meeting Entrepreneurs and joining the Parisian startup ecosystem, the team realized that, in a constant changing technological world, this methodology was outdated.
That's why after the team graduated, the project took a completely different turn and was built and designed again from scratch, in a much more efficient and modern way. The only component of the project that made it til the end was the website.
#### Timeline
##### University years
- REST API made with Ocsigen in OCaml
- Android and iOs apps made with MonoTouch in C#
- Website made with Ocsigen in OCaml
##### Startup years
- REST API remade with Node.js in Javascript, then re-made with Django in Python
- iOs app remade with Cocoa in Swift
- Website temporarily moved to Angular.JS, then back to Ocsigen in OCaml but with a whole new design
- Google Glass app with the API
#### Team
The team changed a lot as volunteers came in, but it was generally composed of:
- db0 as the CEO and CTO
- 1 Head of Marketing and Management
- 1 business counselor
- 1 investor
- 5 developers
- 1 ergonomist
- 2 event organizers
#### Marketing
- **Meetup groups in San Francisco and Paris**. Dozens of meetups were organized with a simple goal in mind: pushing people to unlock achievements in the app. The most popular meetups were a private bungee jumping location, multiple hikes and cooking classes.
- **Parties and events**. The team partnered with the university to appear as sponsors in various events.
- **Newsletter**. 3000 people subscribed to the newsletter and were alerted when new features were released and events were organized.
- **Promotional videos**. A [YouTube channel]() showed achievements being unlocked by meetups attendees and how the app helped them push their limits and enjoy their life to the fullest.
- **Social Media**. Updates were posted on a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a Google+ page on a regular basis.
- **Giveaways**. The team used the opportunity of owning Google Glass to organize impressive live demos and an invite giveaway.
- **Crowd-funding**. An IndieGoGo campaign was setup and the team met with professional crowdfunding figures to make sure it was going to be a success. It never came to life, as the Life. project was terminated when it was supposed to launch - see below.
#### Closure
Life. was never officially launched and remained an invite-only beta. The team wanted to reach out to business partners and advertisers before launching it, in order to raise enough funds to promote it on a large scale and grow very quickly. Unfortunately, the co-founder who was in charge of business and marketing had to leave the company for personal reasons. Though the team tried to replace them, the company was closed after the co-founders voted 3 months later.
The app was removed from the app store and the website was shut down 6 months after the closure, allowing the beta users to save their data and memories of the project.